There was a lot of extra impact because this system also feeds the passenger information so their app, website and information screens at the stations were not working either leaving passengers in the dark.
You might see this is an ironic comment, but it is as much that, and as much a technical statement of fact. Sometimes the trains arrive at the correct time ( +/- 10 min) so they correlate to what you are seeing on the screen.
But unless it's a delay of 1 hour or more, neither trains or tracks will be updated on the screens. It's just happen they sometimes coincide, so they might correlate, but only by coincidence. Trains schedule and train reporting on the train station are, I was told..."Run by different companies!"
-> Source: Conversation with platform manager at Amsterdam Central Station a few years ago. ( not that many years...)
It might be that what you heard only applied to international trains, those have generally lagged behind technology-wise (though nowadays there's certainly also real-time schedule information for them).
Let me tell more about what prompted the conversation with the platform manager. I was staying at a hotel in Amsterdam while doing an IT project in the north of the country. One of the days took the wrong train. At that time, I just attributed it to not really carefully reading the platform indicator. The next day had to take the same train, at the same time, carefully checked the platform monitor, but as I had been burned the previous day....Decided to also ask the train ticket controller at the train door. He laughed and pointed me to another different indicator some trains have, and that happened to show a different destination for that specific train.
The cognitive dissonance that I experienced was so strong, I decided right there to also be late that day, look for the train station manager, for a polite but frustrated conversation on my part, and it was then he clarified this.
Also any Internet search will show others with similar experiences.
Edit: Looking at this example from 6 months ago...Continues to happen:-)
https://community.ns.nl/dienstregeling-59/geen-sprinter-maar...
Safety could be related to duty times, or making sure the rolling stock is fit for a certain trajectory (maximum platform length, weight restrictions etc.)
Part of train history in the Netherlands is the train disaster at Harmelen in 1962 where 93 people died. It spurred the installation of these systems. Every time there is even a minor accident with a train, the national governement is asking questions, up to the highest level. For contrast, every time a child dies in traffic, only the local government (gemeente) asks questions. It is considered completely unacceptable for a train accident to involve more than 2 deaths, it seems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmelen_train_disaster
ProRail the infra manager has all the systems related to safety and long term planning. Think air traffic control to keep it simple.
NS has all the systems for communication with passengers and personnel and train movement (planning). Think airliner.
